U.S. officer at Iraqi jail gets 2 years in prison

Katarina Kratovac, The Associated Press

Published 10:00 pm, Friday, October 19, 2007

CAMP LIBERTY, Iraq -- A former U.S. commander at the Iraqi jail that held Saddam Hussein was acquitted Friday of aiding the enemy but received two years imprisonment for convictions on other charges after pleading for leniency from the judge.

Army Lt. Col. William H. Steele, 52, of Prince George, Va., could have faced a life sentence if convicted of accusations he allowed prisoners to use his cell phone to make unmonitored calls.

"I have no excuse that would even remotely justify my actions," Steele told the judge at his court-martial near Baghdad.

Steele was acquitted of the charge of aiding the enemy for allegedly lending his cell phone to former members of Saddam's regime, including those on death row, and an al-Qaida member at Camp Cropper prison in Baghdad. It was not known if Saddam was among them.

The judge, Lt. Col. Timothy Grammel, convicted him of unauthorized possession of classified documents, behavior unbecoming an officer for an inappropriate relationship with an interpreter and failing to obey an order.

The two-year sentence was lenient, considering Steele could have received 10 years in jail on the classified documents charge. He will be dismissed from the service.

Steele asked the judge to consider his accomplishments and cited an outstanding assessment from the International Red Cross on the prison he commanded.

The prosecution argued that Steele had a history of flouting the rules.

"You heard in this courtroom, in a closed session, that he handed detainee No. 2184, an al-Qaida member in Iraq, his personal cell phone and allowed a five-minute conversation. It was the equivalent of putting an AK-47 in his hands," said Capt. Michael Rizzotti, the prosecutor.

"All it takes is a phone call and if that detainee can communicate with someone outside, that can put soldiers of the United States at risk. The second he handed over that phone for an unmonitored phone call, in Arabic, that is the second he aided the enemy."

Maj. David Barrett, the defense attorney, said Steele never provided a cell phone to a detainee for an unmonitored conversation and said his client was doing his job by treating the suspects at the prison humanely.

The alleged incidents took place between October 2005 and February 2007 when Steele commanded the 451st Military Police Detachment at Camp Cropper prison. Saddam was held there before he was hanged in 2006.

Steele later served as a senior patrol officer at nearby Camp Victory with the 89th Military Police Brigade. The charge of illegally holding masses of classified documents on downloaded and unmarked CDs pertained to that period. Barrett said Steele's storage of classified documents was an "honest mistake" and argued that the defendant's relationship with an interpreter did not constitute behavior unbecoming an officer.